In a rotary-type filling machine according to the related art, in order to improve cost characteristics or maintenance characteristics, accurate filling of a predetermined amount of liquid by a filling method or apparatus is needed without it being necessary to install a measurement unit at each filling valve.
Such a rotary-type filling machine is disclosed in the following Patent Literature 1.
In the following Patent Literature 1, a container is held by a container-holding section of a rotary column and moved along a circular filling path, liquid is filled into the container from a filling start position through a filling valve at a large flow rate for a predetermined filling time, a liquid surface height of the container is detected at a level detection position on the filling path by a level sensor, a remaining supplement filling quantity and a small flow rate filling time are calculated from a difference between a target liquid surface height and the measured liquid surface height, and then liquid is filled into the container from the filling valve at a small flow rate for a small flow rate filling time. As the flow rate and the filling quantity during the small flow rate filling are sufficiently reduced, even when a container portion into which the large flow rate filling is performed is deformed, the liquid surface in the container is constantly controlled with sufficient accuracy. As described above, a filling apparatus using a timer and a unit configured to measure a liquid surface height without a gauge or a load cell installed at each filling valve is disclosed.
In addition, a fixed type filling machine is disclosed in the following Patent Literature 2.
According to Patent Literature 2, in the fixed filling machine including a filling needle configured to inject liquid into a container, a manifold connected to the filling needle and in which the liquid is stored, and an on-off valve configured to open and close a flow path between the filling needle and the manifold, a liquid pressure is measured at a predetermined period using a pressure gauge installed at the manifold, and a filling quantity is calculated from the measured pressure and a pressure-filling quantity function. Then, the calculated result is integrated, and the on-off valve is closed when the integrated result arrives at a target filling quantity, terminating the filling.
According to the configuration, the liquid can be filled without installation of a flowmeter or a load cell at each filling valve.